Night Witches, Hostage Crisis, Pakistan

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Who knew there were Soviet women combat pilots in WWII? The BBC’s Lucy Ash tells us how she came to know some of these women and produce a radio documentary about their lives and exploits. Also, we revisit the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979. Hard to believe it’s been 30 years since the 444-day ordeal began. And we try to understand the complicated motivations of Pakistan’s military leaders by looking back at how Pakistan was formed and what its early years were like. Lots to chew on this week, much of it riveting.

Download MP3

Nazi Traitors, Hamid Karzai, Guinea

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

On the history podcast this week a compilation of recent stories. Gerry Hadden tells us the story of a Nazi traitor who finally had his conviction overturned. Alex Gallafent tells us about changing U.S. views of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. And Marco Werman interviews Loyola University historian Elizabeth Schmidt about the significance of the September 28th stadium in Guinea. Download MP3

Warren Harding’s Love Letters

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

On this week’s history podcast you get the uncut version of Marco Werman’s quite riveting interview with James David Robenalt, author of the new book The Harding Affair: Love and Espionage during the Great War. It’s about President Warren Harding and his long affair with his friend and neighbor Carrie Phillips. One reason the story is so intriguing is that Phillips had strong pro-German sympathies in the runup to World War One and may well have been a spy for Germany during the war itself. The affair is documented in a series of love letters between the two. Harding’s letters are under seal in the Library of Congress but Robenalt, a Cleveland lawyer, got his hands on a microfiche copy. Download MP3

The Nuclear Disarmament Movement

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

It was striking this week–with all the talk at the United Nations of getting rid of nuclear weapons–that the rhetoric was coming from the mouths of world leaders rather than the megaphones of demonstrators. It got us wondering what ever happened to the nuclear disarmament movement? Jonathan Schell and Lawrence Wittner have some answers.

Commemorating the beginning of WW2

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This week’s podcast explores clashing interpretations of what went wrong in 1939. We talk to Holocaust survivors too. And Marco Werman has a musical footnote to our coverage of the history and politics of the African country of Gabon.

• Join the How We Got Here group on Facebook

Robert S. McNamara

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara was an architect of the Vietnam War who came to regret it later in life. He was a towering, complicated, enigmatic figure. This week’s How We Got Here podcast tackles his legacy. Listen

The British Legacy in Iraq

As U.S. forces pull back from Iraqi cities we revisit the British experience in Iraq in the first half of the 20th century. This isn’t the first time outside forces have had to disentangle from Iraq or worry about its future stability. Listen

Iranian Protest Movements

Hard not to be riveted by events in Iran this week. How often in our lifetimes have we seen such a spontaneous and massive mobilization of human beings expressing their dismay? This week’s podcast looks at the a century’s worth of protest movements in Iran and similarities and differences with today. Listen